Land Boundary Issue Between India and Bangladesh

By: Satyam Pathak

Updated: 03 Apr

Never before this India was that much concerned about ‘Neighborhood First’ policy. During his Bangladesh visit, Indian PM Narendra Modi with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina finalized the very much anticipated Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh. This agreement will clear the way for both the countries to end decades-old border problem by the swapping of hundreds of enclaves and hence redrawing the shared border.

Among all the neighboring countries, India shares its longest border with the Bangladesh which is of more than 4000 Km. It has remained a source of multiple problems for India. These problems range from smuggling of drugs and weapons; unauthorized immigrant flow; militant activities to enclave issues. In this post we will primarily talk about border issues. Let us go in its depth. Often India Bangladesh relations are characterized by border disputes. But in actual there is no so called border-disputes between two sides. The issue is more complex.

Both the countries are in perfect agreement about where there border lies as thousands of kilometers long fencing and floodlights has been installed by India across the border. But northern part of the mutually agreed border is very complex at some parts and is the reason for difficulty not only to both governments but also to the people trapped there. The complexity is because of ‘Enclaves’.

What are enclaves and what is wrong about it?

An enclave is a mass of land which is completely surrounded by the territory of another country. There are some parts around the world which have the presence of enclaves. The most famous is Vatican City which is completely surrounded by Italy.

India has 106 enclaves in Bangladesh while the other side has 92 enclaves in India. Most of them are quite small. The fact of presence of these enclaves is quite easy to digest but when it comes to counter-enclaves it becomes complex. There are total 24 counter-enclaves. Now, you must be worried about the term ‘Counter-enclave’ which is basically an enclave within another enclave. Seems quite complex, isn’t it. Well, there is more to increase the complexity of this issue. There is also ‘counter-counter-enclave’ which is the only one of its kind in this whole world. Its name is Dahala-Khagrabari which is a territory of India within Bangladeshi territory, which is within India which again is within the territory of Bangladesh. More complex to visualize? Check it in the below diagram.

It has been estimated that there are more than 51,000 thousands inhabitants in these enclaves. The country having the sovereignty over these enclaves was not having the actual control over them due to their coordinates in the territory of other country. Moreover, the people living in these enclaves are left in a terrible state as they don’t enjoy full privileges as the other citizens of either country. They don’t have access to proper basic services such as electricity, educational institutions, health facilities and law & order.

Now you must be wondering how such a complex border came into existence. According to an old local legend this enclave system which is one of the worlds strangest was created by a game of chess with the villages kept as a wager in it. Sounds strange? Well, it’s a legend. Believe it or not, it’s up to you. These enclaves are also apparently believed to be the result of conquest between the King of Cooch Behar (West Bengal as of today) and the Mughals. The border was demarcated by them when the conflicts ended through a peace treaty in 1713. After the partition these enclaves, which were earlier in Mughal India and then in British India, were inherited by India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Recent development

This issue has been remained a victim of internal politics. Whenever, it came to solve this issue by swapping of enclaves between the two countries, the issue of national interest was always surpassed by state interest and hence it remained unsolved till May 7, 2015 when the much awaited revised version of Land Boundary Agreement, 1974 was finally passed in the Parliament of India as 100^th Amendment to the Indian Constitution.

Under this agreement which is finally adopted by both countries during PM Modi’s Bangladesh visit this week, the residents of these enclaves could continue to reside where they are residing presently or could move to the country of their own choice. Further, movement of people is expected to be minimum as most of the people are said to continue living in the country where they have spent most of their life. A total of 111 enclaves will be transferred to Bangladesh in return of 51 enclaves to India which means India will get the advantage of 500 acres and 10,000 acres of territory will be named to Bangladesh as per this agreement.

Such type of cooperation is the need of time to further develop India-Bangladesh bilateral ties.